THE FUTURE OF DALY’S

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 266, 6 August 1929, Page 16

THE FUTURE OF DALY’S

FAMOUS LONDON THEATRE Dominion Special Service. London, May 23. The news that Daly’s Theatre is in the market will interest two generations of musical comedy patrons, for the theatre is one of the few in London which has maintained a consistent policy of presenting only one class of entertainment. Most peonle would probably hazard a guess that “The Merry Widow”.had the longest run in the history of the house, but they would be wrong; for while Lehar’s lightopera attracted pre-war’patrons for 778 performances in succession, the war-time attraction “The Maid of the Mountains” was performed no fewer than 1352 consecutive times. The name of the late Mr. George Edwardes will always be closely associated with Daly’s, but he was not the first manager. Mr. Edwardes, indeed, had a good deal to do with the construction of the theatre about forty years ago, but it was Augustin Daly, the French actor, who opened it with ‘‘The Taming of the Shrew”; and the room which Daly occupied, a room with double walls and windows, has been preserved to this day in its original state; it is now used by Mr. George Harris, the present manager. For many years Daly’s enjoyed a run of almost unbroken success, and in twenty-eight years there were only nineteen productions, all musical plays with a “Ruritanian’’ setting. When Mr. Edwardes died, his lieutenant, Mr. Robert Evett, ran the theatre for a good many years on the lines made popular by his old chief, and the next owner was the late Mr. James White, the financier. Recently the theatre has been held by a licensee for the banking house which took over the property on Mr. White’s death, and the latest tenant has been Mr. Harry Welchman, who declares that iri a short season he has lost the sum of £BOOO in an effort to revive the class of entertainment for which the theatre has been famed. It is believed that au .arrangement has been reached by which it is agreed that Daly’s shall not be sold for conversion into a kinema.